1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to management of conferencing networks, and more particularly to applications for managing network resources to ensure connectivity of scheduled conferences.
2. Description of the Background Art
H.323 is an umbrella recommendation from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) that describes standards for multimedia communications over IP-based local area networks (LANs) that do not provide a guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS). Common LAN configurations utilize packet-switched TCP/IP and IPX over Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, and Token Ring technologies. Therefore the H.323 standards are commonly used in the implementation of enterprise videoconferencing networks.
An important component of an H.323 compliant network is a gatekeeper, which acts as a central control point for all calls within its zone and provides call control services to registered endpoints. A gatekeeper interacts with other H.323 network components, such as terminals, gateways, and multi-point control units (MCUs). One of the important call control functions performed by a gatekeeper is bandwidth management, which typically includes limiting the total conferencing bandwidth to a fraction of the total available to allow the remaining capacity to be used for other activities. Currently, multi-point and point-to-point calls are typically scheduled without regard to the gatekeeper bandwidth management and call authorization policies. As a result, bandwidth limitation may often result in a refusal to connect an attempted conference call when a certain enterprise network threshold is reached. Thus, what is needed is a method for reliably connecting scheduled conference calls.